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VA art

Looking for something to do this weekend in DC, Maryland, and Virginia? Check out our selection of cultural events right in your own backyard!

Be inspired by art in Bethesda

The second Friday of the month can only mean one thing: art lovers will descend upon Bethesda for the Art Walk taking place at seven galleries and studios. Enjoy free refreshments and a chance to discover original artwork by local, regional and national artists. If you need to rest your legs between galleries, the free Bethesda Circulator bus run continuously with stops within a few blocks from each art space.

From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes the first installment of a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The three films tell a continuous story set in Middle-earth 60 years before THE LORD OF THE RINGS, which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar®-winning THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING.

HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (R)

In June 1939 the King and Queen of England (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) were invited to stay overnight at President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's (Bill Murray) country estate Hyde Park in upstate New York (actually, it's his mother's—he just lives there). This was the first-ever visit of a reigning English monarch to America. With Britain facing imminent war with Germany, the Royals are desperately looking to FDR for support. But international affairs must be juggled with the complexities of FDR's domestic establishment, as wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams), mother, and mistresses all conspire to make the royal weekend an unforgettable one. Seen through the eyes of Daisy (Laura Linney), Franklin's neighbor and intimate, the weekend will produce not only a special relationship between two great nations, but, for Daisy—and through her, for us all—a deeper understanding of the mysteries of love and friendship.

Set in the 1970s, this drama is about Rudy (Alan Cumming), a drag queen whose outrageous exterior hides a lonely but lovable interior. Going to the apartment next door to complain about noise, he finds Marco (Isaac Leyva), a mentally handicapped teenager, abandoned by his mother who has been arrested for prostitution and drugs. Rudy reluctantly and temporarily takes care of Marco, but soon finds himself wanting to turn his guardianship into something more permanent. Meanwhile, Rudy meets attractive, straight-arrow, closeted Paul (Garrett Dillahunt), who attends his show and likes what he sees. Paul works in the DA's office, which comes in handy when Rudy gets into a fight with social services over Marco. As Rudy and Paul are drawn together and become a couple, they seek to adopt Marco, but meet with prejudice and overwhelming obstacles.

THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE (NR)

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested for brutally beating and raping a white woman in New York City's Central Park. The policed announced to a press hungry for sensational crime stories that the young men had been part of a gang of teenagers who were out "wilding," assaulting joggers and bicyclists that evening. The ensuing media frenzy was met with a public outcry for justice. New York Mayor Ed Koch called it the "crime of the century" and it remains to date one of the biggest media stories of our time. Each of the five suspects spent 6 to 13 years in prison before a shocking confession from a serial rapist and DNA evidence proved their innocence. Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE tells the story of how five lives were upended by the rush to judgment by police, a sensationalist media and a devastating miscarriage of justice. Written and directed by Ken Burns (The Civil War, Prohibition, Jazz, Baseball), David McMahon and Sarah Burns.